Ladies of PVRW: We must not give up! We can win in November 2014. We just need lots of boots on the ground! We must save our country for our children and grandchildren.

Equal opportunity, and then you’ll get more equal results. “All of these proposals within this new conservative reform agenda, along with many more to come, mark the road to Philadelphia. These principles and these policies will work – and will put Americans back to work. Not just by cutting big government, but by fixing broken government. Not just by making government smaller but by promoting bigger citizens, stronger families and more heroic communities. Our goal should be an America where everyone has a fair chance to pursue happiness – and find it. That’s what it looks like when protest grows into reform.” Lee: ‘Our Goal Should Be an America Where Everyone Has a Fair Chance to Pursue Happiness — and Find It’

Good reviews across the board, even in some MSM outlets. “We can see it in the response, which was good on substance as well as delivery. She has an Everywoman quality, and doesn’t hesitate to deploy it. She started off the speech noting that her first job was at McDonalds, and connects to voters outside the Beltway and the thought leaders. Unlike some politicians even at this level, McMorris Rodgers knows how to express herself dynamically rather than read off of cue cards, and how to channel joy, intellect, principle, and common sense in tandem. What about the substance of the response? For the most part, it’s a recitation of GOP principles, as one would expect, except when McMorris Rodgers talks about her family — and especially her 6-year-old son, who has Down’s Syndrome. Cole has “only made me more determined to see the potential in every human life,” McMorris Rodgers told the nation passionately. “We are not defined by our limits, but by our potential.” Shortly after that, McMorris Rodgers said that the issue facing America was not “income inequality … but opportunity inequality,” which she pledged the GOP to fight. “That gap has become far too wide,” she argued, because of the same policies Obama proposed yet again in the State of the Union speech.” WaPo: You know, the official GOP response was, er … good

As women of PVRW we must stand up to the “war on women” crowd. There is no war on women, and the National Federation of Republican Women has thousands of female members to prove it. “Mike Huckabee just became a field general in the War on Women. He inadvertently won his promotion with one sentence at the Republican National Committee winter meeting. To wit: ‘If the Democrats want to insult the women of America by making them believe they are helpless without Uncle Sugar coming in and providing for them a prescription each month for birth control because they cannot control their libido or their reproductive system without the help of the government, then so be it.’ The Unbelievable Idiocy of the War on Women

“We can all debate why it is that women and men make such different choices, and whether that in itself is a problem society ought to seek to solve. Yet it would be nice if first we could all agree to stop misleading Americans by repeating this statistic and pretending that the 23-cent wage gap is evidence of rampant workplace sexism. Mainstreamjournalists are moving in that direction; it would be nice if the president’s speechwriters would catch on.” More Pinocchios for the President on Equal Pay

Truth! “While President Obama’s prescriptions would grow federal intervention at all levels of education, conservatives in Congress have proposals that would actually restore state and local control. As Senator Mike Lee noted in his tea-party response to the SOTU, ‘inequality — real inequality — is trapping poor children in failing schools to benefit bureaucrats and union bosses. It’s penalizing low-income parents for getting married, or getting better jobs.’” Obama’s Education Plans: Little Evidence, Lots of Big Government

Thank you! Maybe someone can find the video of Rep. Sinema of AZ CD9 standing and cheering! “The president may have done all Republicans a favor when he offered up an applause line that got all the Democrats to spring to their feet and loudly cheer Obamacare. Most of America hates that policy. That image of Democrats cheering for that policy is sure to feature in Republican attack ads this fall, and to great effect.” Obama’s Mismatched, Misfit State of the Union Is In the Books

Exhaustion. “For me, the defining moment of the speech was this pronouncement: So tonight, I’ve asked Vice President Biden to lead an across-the-board reform of America’s training programs to make sure they have one mission: train Americans with the skills employers need, and match them to good jobs that need to be filled right now. An across-the-board reform to make sure training programs train, and Vice President Biden is in charge of it. That pretty much sums up the Obama administration, and the American Left, at this moment in time. That is what exhaustion looks like.” A Sorry State

There has been, and will continue to be push back. “The Constitution didn’t envision such sweeping unilateral exercises of power within a government of divided powers. As Texas senator Ted Cruz points out in today’s Wall Street Journal: “The Obama administration has been so brazen in its attempts to expand federal power that the Supreme Court has unanimously rejected the Justice Department’s efforts to expand federal power nine times since January 2012.” Just today (Tuesday) came a potential tenth — a three-judge federal-appeals court unanimously found that the Obama administration violated the Freedom of Information Act in trying to keep secret the government’s data on how much individual retailers take in from the food-stamp program. One of the three judges, Jane Kelly, is an Obama appointee.” A President Becalmed Grasps for Power He May Not Have

It couldn’t happen to a more corrupt bunch of liars and thiefs. “In his memo this week, Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg warns me to “forget the conventional wisdom” that “the president is in trouble.” Greenberg points to Barack Obama’s approval rating being up, the Republicans’ reputation at a “remarkable low,” and the generic Congressional vote between the parties being even. Some of this makes sense, but on eve of Obama’s State of the Union address, I’m going with the conventional wisdom: Obama and the Democrats are in deep trouble.” The Political State of the Union Is Not Good Obama and the Democrats are in deep trouble

Getting weaker. No one has to recite any of the statistics noted above to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and its friends in Washington. They know, and they obviously don’t care. If they did, they wouldn’t be pushing mightily to make 2014 their make-or-break year to pass economically ruinous illegal-immigrant amnesty. But to their eternal shame, they are. Throw the ongoing and deepening confusion and chaos of Obamacare and the administration’s apparent nonchalant attitude as it crumbles into the mix, and the one thing you don’t have is a recipe for the economy to have anything resembling a strong year. It’s impossible to know, but it may be that the stock market has finally caught on to what should have been obvious all along, as it shed about 3 percent of its value in last week’s final two days. One thing we do know is what CNBC’s Rick Santelli stated Friday afternoon: government and central bank strategies based on endless stimulus and artificial money creation ‘can’t go on forever.’” The Economic State of the Union Is Weak

Great article from the indispensable Victor Davis Hanson. I recommend that click on over to National Review Online and read the whole thing. “We are reentering Nixonian times, or perhaps worse, given that a free press at least went after Nixon’s misdeeds and misadventures. Now it has silenced itself for fear of harming a once-in-century chance for a fellow progressive’s makeover of America. We live in an age when a CNN moderator interrupts a presidential debate to help her sputtering candidate, and when a writer for the often ironic and sarcastic New Yorker sees no irony in doing a fawning interview with the president, tagging along on a shakedown jet tour from one mansion of crony capitalists to the next — as Obama preaches to the head-nodders about inequality and fairness in order to ensure that the bundled checks pour in.” Governing by Pen and Phone

Can we overcome? “That said, there’s no question that Mr. Obama has been a consequential president. The damage he’s inflicted on our nation has been significant, comprehensive, and durable–including but not limited to the Affordable Care Act. The degree to which we can unwind the disaster of the Obama era is unclear. I don’t for a moment underestimate the harm America’s 44th president has done to our nation. But on matters of sheer competence, I’ll stick with my assessment: Barack Obama is Jimmy Carter without Camp David.” Obama Both Incompetent and Consequential

Remember, we’ve got three more years of this. “Try as they might to change the subject, the negative impact of ObamaCare on the economy and the lives of millions of Americans will remain the single most important domestic issue in 2014. The minimum wage is economic snake oil. But so, too, is the president’s feckless effort to pretend he can magically bypass Congress. Rather than breathe new life into a presidency that has gone seriously off the rails, this stunt will merely confirm that the White House is as helpless to raise the president’s poll numbers as it is to improve the economy. Rhetoric may have won Barack Obama the presidency, but it cannot make up for his inability to govern.” Obama Has Already Proved He Can’t Govern

Good grief. “Obama got elected in 2008 on the promise that he would rise above partisanship and heal a broken political process. Instead, he’s so disinterested in working across the aisle that he’d rather mope at not controlling Congress and fall back to using EOs. Gibbs senses the irony and hypocrisy of this, and offers the “let history judge” dodge, when the utter failure to engage in the White House is apparent right now.” Gibbs: Obama gave up trying to change Washington long ago

No wonder President Obama’s approval rating is over 80 percent in Washington D.C. They’re living the high life on redistributed wealth… “Since the economic collapse of 2008, Washington D.C. and its surrounding areas have remained nearly untouched. In fact, Washington is booming as the rest of the country continues to suffer. The median household income in Washington D.C. is close to $20,000 higher than the median household income in the United States.” Real Income Inequality: A Look at the Income Gap Between Washington D.C. and the Rest of America

Less government is what the people want—if this is true, why do so many people still vote for the Democrats? “’Embattled Americans can doubtless find other evidence that the unscrupulous and uninhibited are already on top, and the nation progressing down the road to serfdom. But could this happen in the United States of America, land of the free and home of the brave? Consider Hayek’s warning: ‘Even a strong tradition of political liberty is no safeguard if the danger is precisely that new institutions and policies will gradually undermine and destroy that spirit.’ Obama’s Road to Serfdom“Inequality” is a highly elastic concept. No one seriously argues that everyone’s income or wealth should be the same, so each listener can ascribe his own meaning to the term. And polls suggest that most Americans agree that, in some fashion, “inequality” is a legitimate issue. The Democrats’ problem is that they haven’t convinced voters that the solution to the problem of inequality, however defined, is more government. Today’s Rasmussen Reports includes these very interesting data:A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 69% of Likely U.S. Voters consider income inequality at least a somewhat serious problem in the United States today. …But when asked which would do more to close the income gap in America, 59% choose less government involvement in the economy over more government action. Thirty-three percent (33%) think increased government involvement in the economy would do more to close the income gap.”On Inequality, Voters Aren’t Buying the Democrats’ Solution

More folks appear to be seeking the ‘fair and balanced’ approach. “Put in context, MSNBC prime time viewers outnumbered those watching CNN by 2-to-1, while Fox more than doubled MSNBC’s own viewership. That means four people are watching Bret Baier and Bill O’Reilly for every one watching Anderson Cooper or Piers Morgan.” Cable war becomes massacre: Fox dominates as CNN suffers huge decline

Theft. “Because the Broncos play at the Jets next season, Manning’s effective New Jersey tax rate will be more in line with the state’s tax table. He will pay roughly $60,414 if they win the Super Bowl and $60,229 if they lose based on allocable income of $682,065 or $679,995 (9/200 x total 2014 calendar-year pay). However, if the Super Bowl were held anywhere other than New Jersey, he would only be paying them $13,425 or $13,384 for his 2014 game against the Jets.” New Jersey Taxes Could Eat Up All Of Peyton Manning’s Super Bowl Earnings

Getting smarter but could they ever vote for a Republican? “On the day of the nation’s 93rd State of the Union address, over six million young people between the ages of 16 and 24 are neither working nor in school, inflicted with a 16.3% youth unemployment rate. According to a press release by YAF, “they expect that Obama will fail to directly address our nation’s young people; as he will fail to apologize for misleading our nation’s youth and offer no plan, just more empty rhetoric.” The poll findings revealed that only 6% of young people between the ages of 18 and 24 are more favorable to the President since he unleashed his now famous falsehood.” YAF Poll: 68% of Millennials Less Favorable Toward President Obama After ‘Lie of The Year’

Maybe we’ve given up on being “self-governing?” “I hope every American actually sees Obama speak those words on a TV or computer screen. His dictatorial attitude, layered with arrogance and condescension, should be repudiated by a self-governing people. Obama’s pen is now forcing schools to use Common Core standards, and parents are up in arms nationwide about defective methods, bad choices of readings, obnoxious federal control through required tests and the computerizing of very private information on all students.” Obama, Far Left Use Government To Subvert U.S. Education

Anyone get why on one hand, the Democrats want amnesty, but on the other hand, they also are seeking a minimum wage increase to over $10 an hour? It just doesn’t make sense…The two are diametrically opposed to one another. “Pro-amnesty politicians and business lobbies talk about investing in our future with an illegal alien amnesty, but what they really want is a first generation of cheap labor for disposable service and manufacturing industries whose employees will be so poorly paid that they will contribute little if anything in taxes and whose children will be more likely to be unemployed than their parents.” Amnesty Ends the American Dream

Scratching my head. “One might think that Senate Democrats, who face an uphill battle in this year’s midterms, would tread carefully on controversial ground. The last thing they need in a cycle that is almost certain to bounce hard against them is to give Republicans another rally point in tight races. Yet 19 of the Senate Democratic Caucus have decided to join the Obama administration in its effort at the Supreme Court in defending the HHS contraception mandate.” Senate Dems to file amicus brief against Hobby Lobby

This: “Now, the Obama administration — led by Holder — has decided that Islam is a “race,” and therefore to examine or even to adduce a Muslim’s Islamic beliefs about jihad, beheading, violence against kuffar(“infidels”), or re-establishing a caliphate is tantamount to racism. This administration behavior is rationalized because ‘federal authorities have in particular singled out Muslims in counter terrorism investigations and Latinos for immigration investigations.’” This: “Advocacy groups and willing dupes in the media and Democrat Party — like Senator Dick Durbin — have foolishly yet successfully conflated race and ideology in the case of only one religion, Islam. They have made examining the latter tantamount to discrimination against the former. No one ever argues that singling out Christians for repression because they hold politically incorrect views about gay marriage or abortion amounts to “racism.” And this: “Obama and Holder are transforming the U.S. into a dhimmi nation: one that cowers before Islamic law and demands that its non-Muslim citizens — especially its 240 million Christians — meekly accept their second-class status and never broach the glaringly obvious fact of Islamic violence, even if this means making all non-Muslims less safe. The question for those of us in the majority, then: just how long will we put up with such a dangerous policy?” First-Class Islam: Eric Holder Puts Muslims Above Terror Suspicion

This is what keeps me up at night. “America’s declining military, political and economic power under Mr. Obama, and its continuing turn inward are gravely endangering even today’s existing minimal conditions of security and stability. If we continue down Mr. Obama’s path, America’s role will either fall empty, or other powers will try to assume it. In either case, global conditions will be far less benign for the United States and its friends (none of which are capable of filling the void) than the current environment. Mr. Obama is following Europe by increasing government budgets for social welfare and decreasing defense budgets, but, unlike our role in NATO, no one will cover our back. What our country needs but does not have, and which Mr. Obama is unwilling or incapable of supplying, is a great national debate on America’s place in the world. Properly informed, we will shoulder the responsibilities necessary to maintain our exceptional way of life.” BOLTON: Obama’s foreign policy based on belief that weaker U.S. is key to peace

She sends her regrets? Geeze.“Clinton’s “imperfection information” comment is another Benghazi lie and her “unforeseen consequences” were perfectly foreseeable. She did nothing before the attack because it would destroy the administration narrative about final victory in the War on Terror, then lied about the video afterward for the same reason. Newly declassified transcripts show top defense officials who briefed Obama on the day of the Benghazi raid describing it as a terrorist attack and telling the president so. Clinton had to know that as well, yet she’s been complicit in a lie agreed upon. The Senate Intelligence Committee said Benghazi was preventable. So is her presidency.” Hillary Clinton Sends Her Regrets On Benghazi

We’ve got a terrific line up for our annual Christmas program. First up will be the Ignite Barbershop Quartet. Ignite began singing together after a quartet matching party in November 2015. They are all Champion members of Region 21’s Scottsdale Chorus and they will be singing for us!

After lunch, Congressional District 6 congressman, Representative David Schweikart, will talk to us about what’s happening in Washington DC, and provide us with a status of the Tax Bill working its way through the House of Representatives and Senate.

Finally, member Julia Graham will install our new 2018/2019 officers. We look forward to seeing you and be sure to bring a friend or two or three!